The Scotland international missed last season’s 3-0 derby win at St James’ Park with an ankle injury and, after suffering a dislocated shoulder last month, only returned to action nine days ago. But he headed the fifth-minute goal that set the Black Cats on their way to a 2-1 victory at the Stadium of Light, with sub Fabio Borini scoring the winner after Mathieu Debuchy had equalised.

“That was the best feeling I’ve had here personally,” said Fletcher, who joined Sunderland from Wolves in a £12m deal 14 months ago. “I missed the 3-0 game last year, so this was the highlight of my Sunderland career so far.

“It was a great way to win the game, especially for Fab, who’s been a bit frustrated with not playing games.

“For him to come on and score that goal was fantastic.

“The dressing room was bouncing afterwards. The music was on and it’s been a while since that was the case. We knew we had to get in their faces straight from the start and we did that.

“We got an early goal and I was absolutely delighted with it. It was a great feeling.”

Sunderland’s win ended a six-game losing streak, which reached its nadir with the previous weekend’s 4-0 defeat at Swansea. And Fletcher hopes the derby win has gone some way towards making amends. He said: “We know what this game means to the fans.

“The fans have not had a lot to cheer about, but I think we showed with our celebrations how much we wanted to win.